US To Roll Out COVID-19 Vaccines For Children Aged 5 to 11

• …Only China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates have so far approved COVID-19 jabs for younger children.

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the United States’s COVID-19 vaccination programme for children between the ages of 5 and 11 will be “running at full strength” as of next week, the White House has announced, a significant milestone in the country’s fight against the virus.

Children in the age group will be able to get Pfizer-BioNTech jabs at paediatricians’ offices, medical clinics, pharmacies and community health centres, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a news briefing on Monday.

The programme will be “running at full strength” starting the week of November 8, Zients said, but jabs could be administered as early as this week in some parts of the country.

Read also: Global COVID-19 Death Toll Surpasses 5 Million In Less Than Two Years

“We have been planning and preparing for this moment,” he told reporters.

“There’s plenty of supply of the Pfizer vaccine and we look forward to parents having the opportunity to vaccinate their kids,” Zients added.

The announcement comes after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday granted emergency authorisation for the Pfizer vaccine to be administered to children in the five-to-11 age bracket.

About 28 million US children in the five-to-11 age group – most of whom are back in school for in-person learning – will be eligible to get vaccinated. Only China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates have so far approved COVID-19 jabs for younger children.

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